你的生活有多重？花一秒钟时间，想像你自己身负包裹。现在，我要你感觉到肩带勒住肩膀的感觉。感觉到了么？接着我请你把生活中的一切都放进去。从小的开始，架子上的、抽屉里的小摆设，各种收集来的物品。一边往里头放，一边掂掂分量。然后放大物件——衣服、桌上设备、台灯桌布电视机。这会儿包裹该挺重了。更大的东西往里头搁。你们家的沙发、床、餐桌。所有东西都塞包里。车子，进去。房子，管它是独门别墅还是两房一厅。我要你统统它们都塞进你的包裹。好了，现在试着挪动下。举步维艰了，是不是？日复一日的生活，我们就是这么对待自己的。我们不断给自己增加负担，直到自己寸步难移。但毫无疑问，生命在于移动。我现在想要一把火烧掉这个包裹。你想从中取出些什么来？照片么？照片是给健忘人士留念的。喝一口酒，照片烧了。要不咱就把所有东西都烧了算了，明天一早醒来发觉自己身轻如燕。这不是件很爽的事儿么？
How much does your life weigh? Imagine for a second that you're carrying a backpack. I want you to feel the straps on your shoulders. Feel 'em? Now I want you to pack it with all the stuff that you have in your life. Start with the little things, the things on shelves and in drawers the knick-knacks, the collectibles. Feel the weight as that adds up. Then you start adding larger stuff - clothes, table-top appliances, lamps, linens, your TV... The backpack should be getting pretty heavy now. And you go bigger. Your couch, bed, your kitchen table. Stuff it all in there. Your car, get it in there. Your home, whether it's a studio apartment or a two-bedroomed house. I want you to stuff it all into that backpack. Now try to walk. It's kind of hard, isn't it? This is what we do to ourselves on a daily basis. We weigh ourselves down until we can't even move. And make no mistake moving is living. Now, I'm gonna set that backpack on fire. What do you want to take out of it? Photos? Photos are for people who can't remember. Drink some ginkgo and let the photos burn. In fact, let everything burn and imagine waking up tomorrow with nothing. It's kind of exhilarating, isn't it?
不过这次有点不同，继续跟上我的步伐。现在给了你一个新的包裹。不一样的是这次我要你把人放进去。从点头之交的熟人开始，朋友的朋友，办公室里头的同事。接着是能够分享你最隐私秘密的人，表兄弟姐妹，三姑六婆，叔叔伯伯，兄弟姐妹，父母双亲，最后轮到你的丈夫、妻子，你的男友或者女友。你把他们放到包裹里去。安啦，不会让你放火焚人。只是再叫你掂掂重量。毫无疑问，你的人际牵绊是生命中最沉重的组成部分。感觉到肩膀上深深勒下去的感觉了么？所有的那些让步争执、欺瞒迁就勒紧了你。你没必要背着重重的包袱。为什么不放下来呢？有些动物生来就要背负彼此，成为天长地久、至死不渝的象征——所谓的牛郎织女，白头鸳鸯。我们却不是这种动物。越是行动缓慢，越是早地迎接死亡。我们不是什么鸳鸯。我们是鲨鱼。
Now, this is gonna be a little difficult, so stay with me. You have a new backpack. Only this time, I want you to fill it with people. Start with casual acquaintances, friends of friends, folks around the office. And then the people you trust with your most intimate secrets - your cousins, your aunts, your uncles, your brothers, your sisters, your parents, and finally your husband, your wife, your boyfriend or your girlfriend. You get them into that backpack. Don't worry. I'm not gonna ask you to light it on fire. Feel the weight of that bag. Make no mistake, your relationships are the heaviest components in your life. Do you feel the straps cutting into your shoulders? All those negotiations and arguments, and secrets and compromises. You don't need to carry all that weight. Why don't you set that bag down? Some animals were meant to carry each other, to live symbiotically for a lifetime - star-crossed lovers, monogamous swans. We are not those animals. The slower we move, the faster we die. We are not swans. We're sharks.